00:00
rootin tootin Putin, what is he up to now? How about piracy? Russian says its businesses can steal patents from anyone and unfriendly countries, which I'm thinking is just damn near everybody. And on the line here with us this morning is the patent Professor John Rizzy. Down in the beautiful South Florida. John, what is that? What is the story here? If they start stealing patent, we know that the Chinese have been real good at it for a number of years. What's this going on? Good morning, sir. Yeah, good
00:30
morning. Well, you know what I mean, there's always talking in like times of war about chemical, biological, nuclear weapons. What a lot of people don't realize is that intellectual property also becomes a war tactic. And Russia has essentially has two decrees that are that were, essentially they've given a license to steal any intellectual property of anyone in in Russia, or any foreign patent holder is holding rates there from unfriendly countries. And it's kind of vague. It's not defined, clearly directed towards any countries that are better supporting sanctions.
01:10
So what and what is it because we know China has been doing this for years, okay, you do business here, you're gonna have to tell us, you're gonna have to tell us what what do you you're doing? And you're gonna have to give us all your top secret information?
01:23
Yeah, so very similar in the sense that any companies like for example, McDonald's has 850 stores in Russia, Coca Cola has bottling plants. All of the intellectual property, the the patents, the trademarks, the name, the brand, so even if McDonald's were to abandon their physical stores, the oligarch could take them up continue business with basically no, no recourse.
01:53
We're talking to the patent professor is John Rizvi about Putin right now talking about his piracy. He says Russia says his businesses can steal patents from anyone and unfriendly countries. Is this another one of these moves where this guy is so drunk with power? He thinks he can do anything?
02:11
Yeah. Well, I wish that were the case. I wish it were that
02:16
unusual, but this is not something that is unheard of. I mean, in fact, after World War One, the United States confiscated all patents and trademarks held by bear the makers of aspirin. So there is this has been done before. A lot of people don't realize that that, you know, patents are territorial. They're, they're granted by countries, there's no such thing as a world patent. And just in times of war, have countries start protecting within their borders, their oil and minerals and other physical assets and physical property. Intellectual property is now up for grabs. So that's, that's one of the first things that I think that Putin has done is gone, and tried to make sure that they have an adequate supply of whatever they need. And maybe it's retaliatory. Nobody really knows the you know, what the what the endgame is, I often say I'm the patent professor, not the Putin professor. So I have no idea what the ultimate goal is. But certainly this is one of the retaliatory measures available to them.
03:23
And we're worried about cyber attacks as well.
03:26
Exactly, exactly. That's that's goes hand in hand. They say always fair in love and war. So certainly intellectual property is not is not sacred, and is not being protected.
03:38
Well, he's taken that to heart. Talking with John Rizvi, you've written a couple of books on patents and innovation. And you just wrote a blog about the Russian threat, John, so this is not something that we're surprised about, are we?
03:52
No, no, this is one of the unfortunate casualties, I think, of intellectual property A lot of times is one of the things we looked at. It's making its you know, it's there's a lot of IP owned in Russia, which is why it's so so newsworthy at this point, compared to, you know, other reasons wars that we've seen, but certainly, like in this case, there is a lot at stake. There's a lot of US companies and US inventors that have rights there.
04:21
Is there any way to protect that? I mean, they could just you know, withhold information or get the hell out altogether, or, or what?
04:31
Yeah, so for right now, I mean, the best anyone could do is really just like take an inventory of whatever IP you have there and try to document as best you can, how it's being used, and certainly that's easier for software and hardware, but technology solutions to try to see in document the access there, and that's that's the best that can be done in hopes that later on if there is some recourse or some way election that possibly becomes available to the World Trade Organization, then you at least have the documentation in place. In case that happens, but that's all unknown at this point,
05:11
the patent professor with us, John Rizvi, and John, the effect of losing a patent protecting various content can vary from company to company, of course, but experts are saying depending on whether they have a valuable patent in Russia, so some of these companies may have may have admitted something while there and that's in danger.
05:31
Exactly, but not even it doesn't really matter where it's invented. Patents, you know, you any inventor can file anywhere, so anyone filing rights to try to protect intellectual property in Russia, regardless of whether they invented there or invented in the United States. It's very common for us inventors to file patents throughout the world. A lot of times they forget that in times of war, those patents are are subject to the country's whim. And if the individual country decides not to honor patents owned by certain individuals, there's really no recourse.
06:09
Very good. John, we appreciate the information. No, where do we go for more?
06:15
Yeah, so I do have
06:18
on my website, the patent professor, I have updates. We have a press page and also on on Facebook, the inventors mastermind and I post updates there from time to time.
06:28
Fantastic, John, thanks for your time. A good a good pleasure having you with us. Terrific. Thank you, sir.